gRPC & Protobuf Services
High-performance, type-safe services for demanding microservice architectures
When REST's overhead becomes a bottleneck and service contract drift is causing bugs, gRPC delivers. We design Protobuf schemas, build gRPC services in .NET, and deploy them to Azure, with streaming support, interceptor-based cross-cutting concerns, and full distributed tracing.
gRPC service design, build, and operations
Protobuf schema design
Unary & streaming RPC services
Interceptors & cross-cutting concerns
Azure deployment & service mesh
gRPC-Web & transcoding for browser clients
Contract testing & load validation
Four scenarios where gRPC outperforms REST
High-throughput internal services
When microservices make thousands of calls per second to each other, processing pipelines, real-time scoring, order processing, gRPC's binary framing and multiplexed HTTP/2 deliver meaningfully lower latency and CPU than REST.
Strong service contracts required
Protobuf schemas are enforced at compile time across all consumer languages. If contract drift between services costs you debugging time, gRPC's schema-first model eliminates that class of problem.
Bidirectional streaming
For real-time data feeds, live monitoring, or chat-style interactions between services, gRPC's native bidirectional streaming is cleaner and more efficient than HTTP long-polling or WebSockets over REST.
Polyglot microservice environments
gRPC has first-class code generation for .NET, Go, Python, Java, Node.js, and more. If your services are written in multiple languages, Protobuf gives you a single source of truth for all client SDKs.
gRPC vs REST vs GraphQL
When to use each protocol. gRPC excels at internal service communication; REST and GraphQL face external consumers.
| Criterion | REST | gRPC | GraphQL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Throughput | Good | Excellent (binary) | Moderate |
| Latency | Good | Lowest (HTTP/2) | Good |
| Streaming | Limited (SSE) | Bi-directional | Subscriptions |
| Browser support | Native | gRPC-Web proxy | Native |
| Schema contract | OpenAPI (optional) | Protobuf (required) | SDL (required) |
| Best for | Public APIs, caching | Internal services, telemetry | Data-rich UIs, flexibility |
Our gRPC delivery process
Schema-first, test-driven, with client stubs available to consuming teams from day one.
Service Design & Proto Schema
We map your service interactions and design the .proto schema, including message types, service definitions, and call patterns. Schemas are reviewed by consuming team leads before implementation begins.
Service Implementation
We implement the gRPC service in .NET (or your preferred language), wiring up interceptors for auth, tracing, and error handling. Generated client stubs are provided to consuming teams early so integration can start before the service is complete.
Testing, Performance Validation & Security
Automated contract tests verify every RPC operation. Load tests validate throughput and latency under realistic conditions. Security review covers mTLS configuration, token validation in interceptors, and service-to-service auth.
Azure Deployment & Observability
We deploy to AKS or Azure Container Apps with Application Insights tracing configured at the interceptor level, giving you end-to-end distributed traces across service calls in Azure Monitor.
Frequently asked questions
When should I use gRPC instead of REST?
gRPC is the right choice for internal, synchronous service-to-service communication where performance and contract safety matter, particularly in microservice architectures processing high call volumes. REST remains the better default for public APIs, webhook receivers, and any surface that needs to be consumed by browsers or simple HTTP clients. The two often coexist in the same system.
Can browsers consume gRPC services?
Not directly, browsers don't support HTTP/2 trailers required by gRPC. We solve this with gRPC-Web (using a proxy like Envoy) or ASP.NET Core HTTP/JSON transcoding, which exposes a REST interface automatically from your proto service definition. Mobile apps using native gRPC clients have no such limitation.
Does Azure support gRPC natively?
Yes. Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Container Apps, and Azure App Service (Linux) all support HTTP/2 and gRPC. Azure API Management also supports gRPC pass-through in recent versions. We configure the necessary HTTP/2 settings, health check endpoints, and ingress configuration for each deployment target.
How do you version gRPC APIs?
Protobuf has strong backward-compatibility rules, adding optional fields and new RPC methods is safe. For breaking changes (removing fields, renaming types) we use package versioning in the proto namespace (e.g. myservice.v1, myservice.v2) and run both versions simultaneously with a deprecation window.
Do you work in .NET for gRPC, or other languages?
Most of our gRPC work is in .NET (ASP.NET Core gRPC), which is the natural fit for our Azure/.NET practice. We also work in Go and Node.js for specific service roles. Generated client stubs are provided for whatever languages your consuming teams use.
Explore the wider integration picture
Ready to bring gRPC performance to your microservices?
Book a free consultation to discuss your service architecture, where gRPC fits, and what a successful gRPC project looks like with Talk Think Do.
Book a free consultationor call 01202 375647